Leigh Pomeroy of Vox Verax adds a strong historial review of the shifting winds of SE Minnesota politics to Joe Bodell's analysis of the Special Election in Minnesota House District 28B.
You'll have to go there to read the material about "The X," aka the GOP candidate, that's drawn from Politics in Minnesota and other sources (worth a click, really). Sean at MnPublius, too, looks at the Draz and just shakes his head.
We'll focus in on Pomeroy's original contribution to the discussion:
DFL candidate Linda Pfeilsticker, on the other hand, is a relative unknown, having upset 2006 Sviggum opponent Jeff Flaten at the party endorsing convention July 10. Yet according to A Bluestem Prairie, she is an enormously popular teacher, and enormously popular teachers have done very well in southern Minnesota if Tim Walz's surprise upset in the 2006 congressional race is any indication. Other teacher-legislators in southern Minnesota include Gene Pelowski (Winona), Andy Welti (Plainview), Robin Brown (Albert Lea), Jeanne Poppe (Austin), Kathy Sheran (Mankato) and Terry Morrow (St. Peter).
Another trend that should favor Pfeilsticker is that the surrounding legislative districts have recently been slipping from GOP to DFL control. These include:
- District 26b - Patti Fritz upset Lynda Boudreau in 2004 and retained the seat in 2006.
- District 27b - Jeanne Poppe took the seat from Jeff Anderson in 2004 and retained it in 2006.
- District 28a - Sandy Wollschlager won the seat in 2006, replacing Republican Jerry Dempsey, who retired.
- District 29b - Kim Norton won in 2006, replacing Fran Bradley, who did not run.
- District 30a - Tina Liebling defeated Carla Nelson in 2004 and held her seat in 2006.
- District 30b - Andy Welti upset Bill Kuisle in 2004 and was reelected in 2006.
- District 31b - Ken Tschumper took the seat from 16-year veteran Greg Davids in 2006.
Minnesota's struggling Republican Party will be looking to reverse its recent losses. On top of losing the state House in 2006, it retained the governorship only because of a strong 3rd party challenge by Peter Hutchinson and a lackluster campaign by DFL candidate Mike Hatch. . . .
Go over and read the whole thing. So far in Blogisota, progressive blogs are discussing the race using solid analysis and documented sources. Given the Draz's past, it might be tempting to report gossip, but with a candidate like Linda Pfeilsticker, why would we need to do that?
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